


When Darkness Feeds

by thegalrahobbitofplantetgalilfrey



Series: The World Turned Upside Down. [7]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Gen, Keith blames himself, Nightmares, sorry about this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-11
Updated: 2017-09-11
Packaged: 2018-12-26 13:11:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12059673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegalrahobbitofplantetgalilfrey/pseuds/thegalrahobbitofplantetgalilfrey
Summary: Keith, traumatized by recent events, begins to have nightmares.





	When Darkness Feeds

**Author's Note:**

> *winces* Sorry Keith.

“Shoot one of them. Shoot them. Or we’ll shoot them both!”

Keith sat up with a gasp, his heart racing frantically as his chest heaved. Just a dream. Just a nightmare. Nothing to be scared of. He was fine. He was in his bed, in his house, with his dad nearby. He lay back on the pillow, letting his heart settle as he slipped back into sleep.

 

“Chose, choose, choose. One shall live, one shall die, shoot or we’ll shoot them both!’ Keith looked at the gun in his hands, at Lance and Annalise, at his tormentors, as their faces shifted and changed, soldiers, soldiers on a battlefield, he was one of them, shooting at planes, one of them went down, number 24601, Shiro’s plane, what had he done?!

“Good choice,” a soldier next to him hissed, “An excellent choice.” He cackled as Keith ran, ran away, away from what he’d done, ran towards the falling plane, towards his friend. He sifted through the wreckage, trying to ignore all of the bodies, all of the injured passengers, all his fault. He had to find Shiro, but there was no one in the cockpit, only a disembodied arm, and the world splintered around him, dragging him down, down into the darkness, into the void, the smothering blackness.

 

Keith yelled as he fell out of his bed, hitting the floor and smacking his elbow. He sat up, shaking, and wrapped his blankets around himself, turning on all of the lights in his room with his back to the wall, staring at the door. He wasn’t going to go back to sleep. Not at all.

 

Akira yawned and rubbed his eyes. Why were there lights on? He _knew_ he’d turned them all off before he went to bed. Unless… was someone else in the house? His blood chilled. The lights were on in Keith’s room.

When he opened the door, there was only Keith, sitting facing the door. Akira heaved a sigh of relief before yawning. “Keith? What’re you doing, bud? It’s three a.m.”

Keith’s head nodded a little, and his eyes were drooping. “Have to stay awake. Can’t sleep. Can’t sleep at all.” His head drooped before he snapped it up. “Have to stay awake.”

“Keith, you have to sleep.” Akira picked his son up and put him in bed while Keith protested weakly.

“Can’t. If I sleep, they’ll get me.”

“Keith, whatever is wrong, you need sleep.”

“Sleep _is_ what’s wrong.”

Akira yawned. “Keith. Go to sleep, okay? Just until a decent hour, and then we’ll talk, alright?”

“Can’t,” Keith yawned, “Can’t…” he curled up into a ball. “Can’t…” his voice drifted off as he started to snore.

Akira shook his head, sighing as he turned off the lights. Sometimes he just couldn’t understand his son.

 

 

 

“Morning, Keith. Did you get any more sleep?”

Keith had bags under his eyes, but he nodded and poured himself some coffee. He would have to find a less noticeable way to stay awake.

“That stuff’s not good for you. It’ll stunt your growth.”

“According to Lance I’m not going to grow anymore anyway, so I’ll take my chances.”

“Care to tell me what happened last night?”

“No, I don’t.”

“ _Keith.”_

Keith sighed. “I had a nightmare, alright? No big deal, I’ll be fine.” Of course he would. He wasn’t going to sleep, so the nightmares wouldn’t come. Simple solution. But one his dad wouldn’t approve of, ergo keeping it a secret.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“No.” Keith got up, ready to go outside. “It was just a nightmare. It won’t happen again.”

 

 

_Your fault, your fault, your fault. Help us, save us, don’t leave us Keith, no, stop, don’t hurt us, your fault, your fault, yourfaultyourfault._

 

Akira woke up when there was a ping on his phone. He somewhat regretted putting a pet monitoring camera in Keith’s room, but he wasn’t so sure Keith was as fine as he said and didn’t intend to let him suffer. He padded down the hallway, where Keith was huddled against the wall again, fingers running through his black bangs, biting his wobbling lip.

“Keith,” he started, but then Keith launched himself at his father, crying softly into his shirt. Akira sighed and held his son. “It’ll be alright.” He patted his shaking son’s back. “Calm down and tell me everything.”

“It’s all my fault.”

“What is?”

“Everything. Everything ever.”

“That’s an awful lot of blame there.”

“It’s just… Shiro’s gone, but maybe, maybe if I’d tried harder, I could’ve gotten him to stay. Maybe if I’d kept a better hold on Lance, argued a little more we never would’ve been kidnapped. Maybe-”

“Keith, don’t blame yourself for things you can’t change. Don’t do that to yourself. You did everything you could all the time. Don’t blame yourself for things you can’t control.”

His eyes welled with tears “But…”

Akira held him closer. “Your nightmares aren’t real. Just ignore them, alright? You’ll be alright. They’re just dreams. They can’t hurt you. And if they keep coming, tell me okay?”

Keith sniffled. “You’re right. It’ll be fine. They’re just dreams. They can’t hurt me.”

Akira smiled and set his son in bed. “Good. I’ll see you in the morning, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Akira turned to leave.

“Dad?” Akira turned back to Keith, who smiled. “Thanks. I mean it.”

**Author's Note:**

> Eh, who am I kidding, I'm not sorry. :)


End file.
